This Date in History: July 2

On July 2, 1874, George A. Custer began an expedition from Fort Abraham Lincoln to the Black Hills to ostensibly determine a suitable location for a future military fort in that area, but in reality to explore the Black Hills for gold.  (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gold and Guns: The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek)

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On Monday, July 2, 1945, U.S. Army official executioners hanged Private Fred A. McMurray and Private Louis Till at the Peninsular Base Section Stockade in Aversa, Italy for the crime of murder and multiple rapes.  Louis Till was the father of Emmett Till, who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955.  Emmett was wearing a ring that belonged to Louis and this ring helped identify his remains.  (The Fifth Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Sentenced to Death and Executed in Europe and North Africa in World War II)

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Wilhelm Koppe, SS-Obergruppenführer, born June 15, 1896 in Hildesheim, Higher SS and Police Leader for Warthegau, Higher SS and Police Leader “South,” assisted in setting up the Chelmno extermination center, winner of the War Service Cross 1st Class, not tried after the war for health reasons, director of a chocolate factory in post-war Germany, died on July 2, 1975 in Bonn, said of National Socialism: “We National Socialists have learned from the mistakes of the past and the bitter experiences of the time of German powerlessness.”  (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)